Monday, March 2, 2015

'World Heritage in Danger': STOP Great Barrier Reef destruction!

The Ecologist

US tax dollars must not finance $1bn Great Barrier Reef destruction!

20th February 2015

A powerful call has gone out the the US Export-Import
Bank not to finance a massive coal mine, railway, port terminal and
dredged 'canal' through Australia's Great Barrier Reef with $1 billion
in loans and guarantees.

If the Export-Import bank
puts a single US dollar towards funding this project, it is literally
financing the destruction of one of the great natural wonders of the
world.

The US Export-Import Bank is on the verge of financing one of the
world's most destructive projects: India-based Adani Group's massive
Carmichael coal mine in Australia's Galilee Basin.
The project also includes a new railway to carry the coal to a new
export terminal at Abbots Point, Queensland, and a new sea 'canal'
dredged through the Great Barrier Reef to allow the passage of coal
freighters.
But a determined coalition of scientists, business owners, Australian
elected officials, and civil society groups from the US and Australia
have called 'foul' in a letter to US Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg.

"The Adani coal project alone is expected to result in an estimated 7.6 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions over its lifetime", the letter states. "Damage
to the Great Barrier Reef has also resulted from reckless coastal
industrial development, such as massive ports and liquefied natural gas
complexes that have compelled UNESCO to consider classifying the reef
as a 'World Heritage in Danger'.

Coral Cod Great Barrier Reef

"This includes two liquefied natural gas projects that received
nearly five billion dollars in public financing from the Export Import
Bank under your direction. In our view, this financing violates US law , as may US government financing for Adani’s coal export project."
Friends of the Earth US President Erich Pica said: "Chairman
Hochberg should refuse to provide financing to any project that would
harm the precious Great Barrier Reef. To do otherwise would contradict
President Obama's call to protect this special place for his daughters
and grandchildren and his State of the Union address, at which he
called climate change the biggest threat to future generations."One mine - three countries' CO2
Aside from the immediate environmental destruction, the project would
cause 128 million tons of carbon pollution annually - more than Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
combined, contradicting the spirit of President Obama's Climate Action
Plan and recent climate progress both in the US and abroad.
A decision to finance the Carmichael project would also undermine US
credibility on climate issues at home and abroad, including the
including the US-China emissions reduction deal, a $3 billion
commitment to the Green Climate Fund, and recent climate and clean
energy progress in the President's FY2016 budget.
And it would infuriate the generations of climate campaigners that were out protesting around the world last weekend on Global Divestment Day,
organised by 350.org, which called on investors, pension funds,
foundations and financial institutions everywhere to dump fossil fuels.Three million tonnes of Barrier Reef seabed to be removed and dumped
If completed, coal will be mined and transported by rail to the
coast, where it will be shipped overseas through ports expanded by
dredging three million tonnes of seabed from the bottom of the Great
Barrier Reef."The Great Barrier Reef is under considerable threat from a
variety of stressors including climate change, crown of thorns sea
stars, and runoff from land", said Dr. Selina Ward, a prominent Queensland Reef scientist at the University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences."The Abbot Point port expansion would considerably exacerbate
this pressure. This continuing industrialisation of the GBR coastline
invites reef degradation, especially from the dredging of the ocean
floor, the dumping of the dredge spoil and the enormous increase in
carbon emissions from the proposed coal mines."
The recent January 31 election in the State of Queensland saw the
biggest swing against a first term government in Australia since 1955.
Many Queenslanders rejected the sitting government due to its support
for the Galilee Basin coal mines and associated port facilities and
their impacts on the Great Barrier Reef.

Great Barrier Reef marine park

The Greens achieved their highest ever Queensland election result,
and Labor is now forming a government, after that party pledged to
prevent any dredge spoil from being dumped in the World Heritage Area or
nearby wetlands and to reverse the billions in tax breaks and tax
dollar support the previous government promised Adani."Queenslanders clearly do not accept the government's destruction of the Reef", said Greens Senator Larissa Waters of Queensland. "The
Queensland Government's plans to industrialise the Reef threaten to
destroy one of the most precious places on earth, through dredging,
shipping and climate change."We call on the US Ex-Im Bank to reject any requests for
financing of the Abbot Point expansion or associated rail and mine
infrastructure. US taxpayer dollars should not be subsidising the
destruction of the Great Barrier Reef."And it's an economic disaster too, conclude major banks
And while Ex-Im is considering backing the project, major financial
institutions - including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of
Scotland, HSBC, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Credit Agricole, and JPMorgan
Chase - have publicly rejected the proposal.
They don't like the fact that the project would jeopardize the Reef's World Heritage status. But even more serious for potential financiers, reports show the project is not financially viable."The fact is that this disastrous project would damage a world
treasure like the Great Barrier Reef while making our climate crisis
even worse. The notion that Ex-Im would use American taxpayer dollars to
support it is unconscionable", said John Coequyt, director of the Sierra Club's International Climate Program."If the Export-Import bank puts a single US dollar towards
funding this project, it is literally financing the destruction of one
of the great natural wonders of the world."